A Drink Between Men
by Ayuka86
Summary: If there was one well known truth amongst most of SOILDER, it was that there was no such thing as a decent cup of coffee in all the Shinra empire. That being said, Zack tries to restore Sephiroth's faith in said drink. Pre-Crisis Core. No Spoilers.


**A Drink Between Men**

**A/N**: Title edited and contents revised on May 26th.

**Prompt**: Starbucks **Genre**: Friendship/Humor **Inspri'** LuckyLadybug

**Characters:** Sephiroth, Zack, and Angeal **Pairings:** Only if you squint real hard.

**Chapters:** 1 of 2

* * *

'Ridiculously bitter and more than slightly oily, not to mention, probably able to eat through almost any solid surface,' this was the only description that could even come close to depicting the blacker-than-black Shinra issued muck rapidly cooling in silver-haired General's cup.

Shaking his head at the sheer audacity of those who tried to pass the unappealing sludge off as something less than toxic, the twenty three year old swordsman none too gently moved the mug of yuck to a less conspicuous area of his desk.

If there was one well known truth amongst a good majority of SOILDER, and probably a good number of TURKS too, it was that there was no such thing as a decent cup of coffee in all the Shinra empire. So, with that sort of thought floating through his head, Sephiroth leaned over and grabbed another packet of papers from the large mound that had collected in his inbox over the weekend.

It wasn't too long after he had began leafing through the thick sheaf of seemingly mundane documents when the door swung open and his second-in-command's dark haired apprentice stepped in, holding two brightly colored mugs. The teen smiled sheepishly, before holding up the mugs and using his hip to nudge the door closed again. If Sephiroth strained, he was sure he would be able to read the bright bubbled letters imprinted on the mugs' fronts, but there was no need. He was already familiar with those two particular mugs, as he was the rest of Zack's unique collection, which had taken up residence next to the coffee maker in the next room.

For a moment, silence filled the office, before a soft half-chuckle was issued from somewhere to Sephiroth's left. It was followed by the sound of a file cabinet being roughly closed and the swooshing of clothing as the man who was looking though said cabinets climbed to his feet.

Angeal stepped away from the dented silver monstrosity, careful to step over the circle of files he had arranged around himself on the floor, to greet his student. It felt good to stand.

"Err, I brought you some coffee," the teen needlessly explained, smiling, stepping into the office a bit further and extending one cup towards his mentor. Sephiroth couldn't help but smirk as Angeal's eyes scanned over the mug's printed message causing a sigh to slip from his lips. Ah, today the raven haired teen decided upon Angeal's not-so-favorite mug, which until a few days ago had been mysteriously missing.

Honestly, Sephiroth couldn't blame his long time friend for his distaste towards the cup, which had been a present from Zack a little after the beginning of Angeal's mentorship. It was a little tacky if he did say so himself, if not a bit embarrassing. The image of the usually intimidating Commander Hewley sipping his morning java from his **_World's Best Teacher_** mug left something to be desired, when he thought about it, but Sephiroth guessed it could be worse. Take a pair of _**World's Best Teacher**_ boxers, for example.

"Thought you might need a little pick me up with all the crap Lazard's been throwing at you, so I made a pot," the teen continued as Angeal took his cup from his student, if only to put it down on his desk before going back to his digging his way though the masses of manila folders in the filing cabinet. Zack shrugged it off easily before turning to face Sephiroth with an apologetic look and holding out the other cup of coffee for his superior to take.

"I didn't know how you took your coffee, Sir, so I left yours black," the teen supplied and waited for Sephiroth to take his drink, but the silver haired man only went back to his work. Zack's smile faltered as his hand remained outstretched, still clutching the warm mug, "Don't like coffee, sir?"

"I like coffee," Sephiroth casually replied, continuing his paperwork. As his hand swiftly scrawled the nine letters that made up his name, he felt the need to explain in better detail.

"I just do not like the Shinra _'house blend'_. Not many people do," he continued, looking up for a second with a slight quirk of his lips. Angeal absently nodded in agreement.

"Why not? Does it taste like ass or something?" the teen asked, pulling the mug back to cautiously sniff at the contents before attempting to roll the contents around the cup.

"Zack, that is no way—" Angeal's barked, his head shooting up to glare at his disrespectful student. He was going to begin what was sure to be a long lecture on proper decorum towards one's commanding officers, as well as polite conversation, when the sound of Sephiroth's smooth baritone silenced him.

Was that chuckling he heard? Angeal look at his friend incredulously. Zack looked up from the mug he had his nose in to stare at his General, like a startled puppy, which caused the silver haired man to laugh a little harder.

"Sephiroth, I'm sorry for—"

"No need," he managed. Obviously, Angeal had never subjected the boy to the murky abomination, not that he would ever do so either, since he was rather fond of Zack. He was tempted, however, to pour some of the foul liquid down a few other choice people's throats. Especially, down the one belonged to a Professor Hojo, who with Sephiroth's luck would actually enjoy the drink. It was dark and tainted like the scientist himself, but that was another matter entirely.

Finally, when the chuckles died down, he continued. "If I remember correctly, the Second Classes aren't introduced to '_coffee_' until they are inducted into the higher ranks, which are usually given to Firsts."

He then turned to address Zack directly, "If you're lucky, you will never have the displeasure of trying it."

"As for us, on the other hand," Angeal trailed off, shaking his head.

"Is it really that bad," Zack asked, looking at the cup between his hands, debating weather or not it was worth it to try a sip. Sephiroth watched him with interest as the teen leaned the cup to his lips, but thought better of it at the last moment, "I mean I've heard rumors, but…"

"If by bad, you mean horrendous, then yes. And believe me, the rumors are more than accurate, for once," the Silver General replied, his tone darkening at the memories of other less-accurate rumors before what sounded like a scoff came from somewhere in Angeal's general vicinity.

"Then why do people drink it?" Zack asked as he finally decided to not partake of the potentially dangerous substance. The next issue was where to put it down. He looked around, hoping not to be too conspicuous about it. Both Firsts were anal when it came to such things, such as leaving food around, or even not using a coaster. Zack was a bit reluctant to just put it down somewhere, since from what Sephiroth claimed, there was a good chance the sludge had already began to eat though the bottom of the cup.

"That, I do not know. Usually, I won't go near it, nor will Angeal," The platinum haired man replied, leaning down and going back to his work, leaving Zack to continue fidgeted with the mug. "But sometimes the caffeine is necessary to help get though the day. Or night, which ever it may be."

"Yeah, damned if you do, damned if you don't, kind of day," Zack replied still aggressively fondling the cup, while Sephiroth only nodded in agreement, and Angeal was too absorbed in his work to do more than offer a muttered warning. "Hate those."

It was near silent for a few minutes as the two First Classes worked and Zack just stood in the middle of the room, rolling the now cooled mug between his hands for lack of something better to do. Finally, Angeal closed the file he was looking at and put it back into the not so tidy row he had taken it from. He looked at his student with a slight smirk as an idea formed in his mind.

"Stop fidgeting, if you're looking for a place to put that, you can put it next to mine," he said as he pulled out several thick files and placed them on his desk with a thud. After opening two and arranging the others for easy access, he sat.

"Oh, and if you're going to loiter here, you'd better make yourself useful and get to work," he continued after his student put down the mug, "That file cabinet isn't going to sort itself, you know."

To Be Continued


End file.
